Satish Pawar is currently working on his PhD thesis Habitat suitability and potential recover of eelgrass at DTU Aqua. His supervisor is Professor Karen Timmermann, who has helped document how eelgrass is very important for the ecological state of Danish fjords and coastal waters.
In his PhD, Satish Pawar is working on how to monitor the distribution of eelgrass using drones and satellites. Get up close to Satish Pawar and his research in a central area of the marine environment with DTU magazine Dynamo's theme Close to My Ph.D. in the following:
My PhD project is about …
… using remote sensing, which includes recordings from drones and satellites, to monitor the distribution areas of eelgrass in Danish waters. Eelgrass is a flowering plant with long, narrow leaves that grows in salt and brackish water close to the coasts.
It is unique when it comes to creating habitats for marine organisms such as Atlantic cod, and thus contributes to marine biodiversity.
At the same time, eelgrass binds both carbon and nutrients, which benefits the marine environment. Eelgrass beds can also filter the water for particles, and the larger the eelgrass beds become, the clearer the water in those areas, and the better the water quality.
In other words, it is an indispensable plant if we are to ensure a good marine environment. That is why my colleagues and I are monitoring the Danish eelgrass areas with remote sensing to map where eelgrass grows in large quantities and find answers to why it grows in some places and not in others. We will also be able to assess which coastal sea areas can be replanted with eelgrass.
The research can contribute to …
… taking measures to improve coastal waters and provide a well-founded answer to which areas should be put in the most effort when it comes to protecting and planting eelgrass, and where the least effort is needed because eelgrass is already growing in reasonable quantities.
The purpose of my project is to identify suitable seabed areas for eelgrass, so that in the long term we can improve the water quality and biodiversity in Danish waters.
It has been a good day at work when …
… a theoretical prediction model works, and when I receive new data or new information that I can use to move forward with my research.
I relax from my work when …
… I turn off the work computer and do something other than research. I travel a lot and also ride a motorcycle quite a bit, so much so that I bought one. It is a really good way to travel because you really experience nature along the way. I once rode from DTU's campus in Lyngby to Jutland on a motorcycle for work, and it was a beautiful ride.
I became a PhD researcher at DTU because …
… I came across this project, and it made me curious about why this type of eelgrass is so important that people study it and try to find new suitable seabed areas for it. The more I read about eelgrass, the more curious I became, because I realized that eelgrass is just as important to Nordic waters as coral reefs are to tropical ones.
I worked with similar satellite data and surveillance images of coral reefs in India during my master's degree, and when I started looking for a PhD project, I wanted to continue using images and artificial intelligence to predict how and where coral reefs are changing.
The project at DTU Aqua was therefore a perfect fit, even though I have replaced corals with eelgrass.
As a new PhD researcher, I was surprised by …
… the extensive collaboration among the researchers at DTU. It is unique that there is so much knowledge sharing across disciplines, and that research results are shared so freely.
The biggest challenge I experience as a PhD researcher is …
… the time of three years. It may sound like a lot to have three years for a research project, but it is a race against time to achieve useful and good results.
In the future, I would like to work with …
… research within the same field as now with access to a laboratory with high-tech drones and other monitoring equipment.
However, I could return to researching coral reefs at some point and perhaps use the same techniques that I use in this project to monitor them and predict their development.
I get new ideas when I …
… talk to my supervisor, Karen Timmermann, because she always gives me a new perspective on what I present to her. But I also get new ideas when I read or listen to something that is completely outside my field of research, or watch videos about technology on YouTube.
